Making // Progress on my Ten Square quilt for Emma. I finished all the blocks and laid them out on the bonus room floor earlier this week. After much shifting and switching and rotating I came up with a layout that felt suitably random-yet-balanced. I’ve sewed 3 rows together so far and plan to knock out the rest of the quilt top piecing today. I’m getting there!
Anticipating // A fun weekend. My college friend Jen and her family are in town from Seattle to visit her sister-in-law…and to see us as a bonus! And Emma has a birthday party to attend. (Perhaps I will grow to dislike kid birthday parties but right now I look forward to them because I like hanging out with the parents.) And Sunday is Mother’s Day. Yay!
Reading // Rise of the Rocket Girls. I was immediately drawn to the subject matter — the role women played over the history of the Jet Propulsion Lab (now a NASA center but still run by CalTech) — and that part doesn’t disappoint. But the narrative feels very scattered, and there are also a lot of eyeroll-inducing (at least for me) descriptions of what the women looked like and how they dressed and did their hair. I’m about 25% through so the jury’s still out on this one.
Enjoying // Charlotte’s interest in all things big and small. She just can’t get enough of the world around her and it’s so awesome. Yesterday she spent a good 5 minutes just fiddling around with my ring as we sat in the kitchen after work and daycare.
Giving // A big side eye to ThredUp. I’ve seen this site mentioned all over the place — they sell gently used clothes from popular brands at deep discounts — and decided to try their “clean out bag” where you send them clothes and they pay you for them. I sent 22 items from my now-unneeded maternity wardrobe. Here was the result:
They accepted 13 items and rejected 9 (which they say will be donated or sent for textile recycling). One shirt that was rejected still had the tags attached. Another item that still had tags was listed as “minor signs of wear.” But a pair of Gap maternity work pants that I wore 1-2 times per week through 2 pregnancies and expected them to reject was listed as “might mistake it for brand new.” Their assessment of the items I sent makes me question the accuracy of all of their condition listings.
For 13 items, they offered me $17.50. Honestly, I really didn’t expect much and was more curious to just try out the service. But for barely more than $1 per item, in the future I’ll just stick with donating to Goodwill.
I’ve been hesitant to donate to ThredUp, too. I almost did but most of my items weren’t on their list of items they accepted. I’ve decided to just buy from them and skip the donating. That said, I *have* gotten awesome deals on items with tags still on, some very expensive and good brands, too.
Yeah, I think the takeaway is that it’s a MUCH better option for buying than selling. I kind of suspected that, and this confirmed it.
Get that Goodwill stuff ready for me to take this summer